End of the Fairytale
by wolfdancer333
Summary: Minor spoilers for Skip Beat Chapter 277! It's time to say goodbye to the past but can Kyoko let go? The fairytale started with this but how will it end? (Not technically a romance haha but I promise there is Ren/Kyoko XD)


As necessary as her decision was, it broke her heart.

After all, it wasn't everyday one said goodbye to what used to be an old friend, a warrior comrade, and a trusted companion in securing her future. But even knowing this, Mogami, Kyoko also knew in order for her to move on, to move forward, she _had_ to do this. It was time to let go and say goodbye to the past, to the woman she had been, even if that meant facing the one thing that had given her endless drive to keep fighting. Bright, fluorescent lights cast down over her longer, deep black locks, twisted into a purposefully messy, fashionable bun at the back of her head. Sitting on the cool, hard chair made of plastic, she faced what she had to get rid of to heal.

Well, by face, Kyoko stared determinedly at her hands in her lap, wringing them together and twisting her fingers so tightly they were pink from her efforts. Golden orbs framed by dark lashes stared, unseeing, at her hands, feeling the weight of meeting _here_, with _it_, and fighting the tepid coil in her gut that this was so very wrong.

Especially when she knew what she was possibly sacrificing to be here.

Or, more precisely, _who_.

Shaking away those thoughts, she clamped her eyes closed, fingers twitching painfully together and eyebrows carving a deep trench – reminiscent of the moth-of Saena-san all those years – in her smooth, pale forehead. With a quiet click, the air conditioning kicked in and a cold, icy burst blew up the lithe, bare leg, caressing her inner thigh where her skirt didn't quite fall enough to cover it. But that cold was nothing compared to the frigidity in her heart. Oh, what a horrible, foolish woman she had become and she was sure she was being laughed at but too afraid – too hesitant, too lost in grief – to glance up or open her tightly closed orbs.

But she also knew she didn't have enough time to fool around and lose courage.

Yet, sitting there, in that room on that cold plastic chair, Kyoko had never felt more….Relieved? She was here, and even though her spine was pulled taut and her shoulders were drawn tensely towards her chest, today, it would all end.

Of this she was sure, if sure of nothing else but that fact.

Because today she was letting go.

If only she could just…._Do_ it. Say what was bottled in her heart, words battering against the cork of a full bottle attempting to overflow with everything she needed to say. Her chest grew tight and, with a slight wince, she realized she was holding her breath, preparing for the sheer loss she knew would cripple her when she left this room, leaving a broken heart cruelly lying on the icy floor like hers had been, in that time not really so far away. It was the vengeance, in a way, she had always dreamed of achieving – but no longer truly _wanted_.

But now she _had_ to do it.

There wasn't any choice left. And she wasn't sure there really ever had been, that she would end up here, sharp, emotion-laced words choking her and threatening to drown her heart.

This was where it had begun and where it needed to end. This was the end of one fairytale and the start, albeit a sorrowful one, of a new one, a brighter one.

_Her_ fairytale.

It just sucked it had to start with an ending.

Tightly drawn eyebrows unfurl, her closed golden orbs softening as her tangled fingers unravel and rest on the soft, white skirt covering the tops of her inner thighs. Her loose, sheer belt – a beautiful one-coiner scarf she had bought for Chiorin all those years ago – reminding her, silently, that she wasn't alone, even if her best friends weren't in the room, they were there. A flowing, ruffled white blouse hugged her belly and rested on her beasts, loosely hanging off her shoulders in wide, open sleeves. It was a very simple, pure outfit, it was white and it symbolized her fresh start, with a familiar, tear-drop shaped gem hanging from a thin chain around her bare neck. Resting further along, in-between the sharp blades of her collarbone, rested Moko-san's support in the form of a glittering fairy pendant Kyoko knew had to have cost the actress a greater fortune.

Her friends supported her, knowing without knowing what she needed to do.

They had no idea she was here, in the room with heartbreak and impending doom, but they had known the emptiness in blank gold pools, seeing nothing but a determined will to do what was right.

And this was right, no matter how much it broke her heart.

From some place inside a once broken girl, a cork lost the battle, and the words spilled from her lips, burning but dizzying like heated sake on a Winter night. The words came, easy and simple, and so quiet, even a mouse would have had trouble hearing them.

But they echoed through the slowly draining bottle, words finally free and pouring out in a gentle whisper.

"It's….Hard to believe we made it here, isn't it? You and….Me." She had to pause, swallowing down the cork that had suddenly shot into her dry throat. A smile too bitter to be sweet flittered like a ghost over her pink lips. "It started with a broken heart and I guess, that's how it's going to end…."

Her words trailed off into a hush, tension falling heavily and cutting through the cold of the room, but Kyoko couldn't stop. She knew if she did, she wouldn't have the strength to keep going, would open her eyes to the burn of tears hidden behind her eyelids. "It started with you and me, didn't it?" Her mouth parted, a tiny, shaky giggle choked out of her. "I mean….What a journey, what a story. Do you ever….Regret? Regret what happened, what you didn't do?"

Swiping a limber finger under her closed eye of where a stray tear had leaked, she stared at the shiny, warm wetness on the smooth pad and nearly erupted into a bawling mess.

Instead, she took a deep breath and her bottom lip trembled as she admitted the sin she had kept in her heart. "I do."

There was nothing Kyoko regretted more than that day. If only she hadn't turned up at Akatoki Agency so late in the day, if only she hadn't thought only of _him_, and if only she hadn't fallen in love then she wouldn't have to be here now, at the end of it all and her heart shattering all over again. She could feel it, the sharp crack as the glass slowly crumbled and the sting of the shards, the light tinkle as they hit something deep inside her that _ached_.

If her best friends knew, if the man she had come to love knew, then would they turn their backs on her, like all the other people she had loved and trusted. Would they leave her, abandon her, if they knew how much of a sin it was that she regretted that night, but not the regret of feeling _regret?_ She wanted to regret that night and wanted to take it back. Knowing she couldn't, knowing that she was breaking a bond that could never be revived or retrieved or regrown, and, struck with such an intensity of _loss_, she caved.

Hunching at her shoulders, Kyoko lifted her trembling fingers and pressed them gently on her closed eyelids, hot tears budding at the corners. "I should have cried then and instead I….I laughed. I laughed…." Her voice broke and, reflexively, she hitched in an unsteady breath, her chest too tight and her heart lying in broken little shards. "You must think me a fool, right? You, who have been with me since the beginning, who knows my heart better than anyone else, ne?"

That moment came back, flashing through her mind.

Hunched over a couch and _laughing_, unable to understand her own feelings. Now, however, she did. She could say them, much more clearly, and so she did, with her teary eyes buried in her fingers and mumbling quickly, quietly, her sins. "I should have gone home. I wanted to, you know….I know, I know….How could I say that after I swore vengeance, only to want to run home?"

She grew quiet, pensive, and waited. When nothing came, she continued through the stifling silence. "But Mogami, Kyoko had no home. Kyoto….Home was nowhere. How could a plain, boring girl have a home when she had always been told who she was and who she should be? And so," her voice shook but she finished the thought. "I stayed. With you, in Tokyo, for vengeance."

Another pause. "At least….It was, in the beginning."

The scene shifted, her mind rushing through those first, hard memories and leaving her with a bone-deep ache she yearned to itch. Pain throbbed in her bones and the shattered pieces of her heart tore open those long ago wounds that seeped blood as if they were fresh. She'd really fuddled up that LME audition. But she'd survived and, fortunately, so had Moko-san.

The words this time weren't as quiet nor as mumbled, her voice softer and gentle, but stronger even though the warmth of her tears raced down her cheeks and over her fingers. "I thought I would drown in this hatred forever. But….I don't want to _hate_ any more. I want to walk out in the sun, free of the heavy armor and the chains, free of –"

Her breath stopped and the next word was blown out through her parted lips. "You.

"Because then I met _him_."

It was absolutely impossible – and she dared anyone to try! – to think of _that man_ and not smile. She was not lucky enough to master the art and despite the pounding, gaping loss she felt, she couldn't stop the soft, light smile nor the weightlessness of feeling everything at once.

He'd hated her; she'd despised him.

For so long, they hadn't tried to fix that and in the end, they didn't have to do anything. As if by Fate's magickal design – and Kyoko was positive, 100% actually, that Fairy magick was involved – their hatred slowly morphed, evolving, shifting, changing into something…..Else. In the beginning, she had loved one man and hated the other and then Fate smashed everything together and she ended up hating the man she had loved and not, well, hating the other one. It was like some God had seen her turmoil and reached down, flipping her world over and watching – laughing probably too the bastard – as she tumbled through the sands.

Feeling like she had been slighted – and unaware of the way a God suddenly shuddered, looking right and then left in confusion of the intense horror that had travelled up his spine – Kyoko finally allowed her eyes to open slightly. Glaring through the hazy sheen of her wet tears, she stared and waited for the film to seep away. But she still couldn't look up to see what waited for her. It was surprising, the patience, but she was thankful for the lack of response, not sure she could handle her own feelings _and_ added commentary.

Slightly numb with the prick of irritation, Kyoko settled her hands on her skirt and spoke through her sore throat where the cork had expanded into a wooden ball she couldn't swallow.

But her smile remained, light and soft. "I didn't mean to, you know….Fall in love with him. He was….Too good to be true, and even before, well," she waved a hand dismissively in the room. "This, I knew that. And I was too broken to love. Or be loved. I didn't deserve him and I didn't _want _to want him. So, imagine my surprise, when," she stuck a finger into the air, proclaiming, "I did fall in love with him. But it was impossible, I tell you, impossible!

"He was so….And I couldn't…! He drove me crazy trying to deny and fight and run and arrgh!" A hand struck through the wispy strands of hair pulled into the bun, clutching tight in frustration as she frowned, now irritated at her own irritation. "It should have been impossible but there I was, stupidly in love. Again. And I don't need _you_ to tell me how stupid that was!"

Her voice dropped low and she sunk into the hard chair, deflating slightly. "We both know you _know_ how stupid it was."

Slumped in the chair but released from the warm pressure of tears, Kyoko frowned steadily at her black heels, scuffed and worn from the 'Box R' set. "He paid for the mistakes, constantly being stabbed my the shards of my broken heart….Every time he reached out, I ran away. Because I knew it, you know, I knew what his touch would do to me. I knew and I want you to know!" Her voice shook, cracking in the middle as she tried to fight the shaking of her bottom lip. "I fought. And I fought hard.

"You….You helped me fight and I can only….." A single tear slipped out, unbidden, splashing to the tiled floor and breaking into a puddle like a fragile Princess' broken heart. "Apologize. Because I lost.

"I succumbed to my defeat with all the grace of a proud lioness defending her single cub, I tell you! It wasn't willing, how was I supposed to fight!?" She paused her sudden tirade, but no response came. This only fuelled her fury and she crossed her arms, puffing out her bottom lip in a shiny pout as if the silence had scolded her. "I tried, damn it. But you didn't make it easy either! Looks like…." This time, her eyes closed softly. "We both lost."

It was really quite simple how she had lost. She was known – she blushed a deep, dark red at this thought – for her naive obliviousness but even _she_ couldn't deny it when a man chases you down a studio hallway, shouting and desperate, corners you in an empty elevator, takes your small jaw in his large, warm hands, shouts he loves you, _you_, and then proceeds to kiss you senseless, even lifting your feet off the floor. How could she have possibly denied that?

Blushing darker, the flush paints down her slender neck, dipping beneath the bright white of her silky blouse. She didn't deny it, in fact, she had contributed to that kiss. Heartily. Happily.

And all the ones that followed were just as magickal.

Of course she could never have been prepared for that same night when he had told her his real name. It was a true testament that he was used to her behavior because if he hadn't reached out and pulled her into a tight embrace, she would have slammed herself so hard into his apartment floor she would have broken through into supermarket below. At first, she had felt betrayed. He had _lied_ to her. But no amount of her own pain mattered when, with the most haunted, vulnerable expression she had ever seen, he told her _why_ he had lied. How a perfect man like him – the son of a Fairy King and Queen, because they were all too beautiful to be human no matter how much they laughed at her for believing it – could believe he was a_ monster_ was beyond her understanding. And, with her usual gusto, she had told him so.

That night, two broken hearts had learned to trust once more, a Princess reunited with her Fairy Prince, and it was that night, she knew, when he had kissed her – softly, sweetly, gently, with all the passion of the Emperor and all the sweetness of a Prince – that she had, willingly, succumbed to her fate.

A snort broke out of her nose and her lips curled upwards in a wide grin.

Oh, what was even funnier was the day her and Kuon had told the President – and inevitably, the Hizuri's when he had called them up crying – their secret.

She wasn't sure who embarrassed her more that day: the father she had adopted who had wailed with the sobbing President about lying, heartless children. To this day, her and Kuon weren't forgiven and the eccentric LME President would frequently send them narrow-eyed pouts. She shook her head softly, staring at her white skirt and her shoes, trying to recenter and focus. This wasn't really about her. This was about_ them_ and about, finally, letting go of the past.

A surge of fear flooded her but she held her ground, knowing she could leave this room and nothing would change, no one would ever know the truth.

But anyone who knew Mogami, Kyoko knew she wouldn't run.

And she didn't.

"I lost so much but…." Her grin softened, warm and sweet, brightening up the room and reflecting magick in her gold pools. "I had to lose to make room to gain. Because now I have so many people who mean so much to me and….Now, I have to fight for them. And…." Tears burst across her vision again and her lips trembled, her smile tumultuous. "That means letting you go, now. Without you, I would never have gotten this far. Without you, I wouldn't know what true love is. Because of you, my fairytale can finally begin.

"And that's why," taking a deep breath, Kyoko placed her palms on her bare knees and rose up. Instead of rising to her feet, though, she kept her head bowed and eyes closed, bent at the waist and hands on her bare knees, bowing to the one that had shaped her into the Mogami, Kyoko she was now. "I cannot, ever, thank you enough. I am grateful it was you who fought this battle with me, until the end. Thank you."

"_What_ are you_ doing_?"

That sharp, icy mature tone and that inherent haughtiness….Spinning on her heel and snapping upright, Kyoko beamed a magnificently shiny smile towards the doorway where a tall, lithe figure stood, one hand on her cocked hip. She held, draped across her free arm that was loosely suspended across her rounded stomach, a dark maroon sweater. Dressed in a similar fashion – a simple black blouse and form-fitting inky pants that contoured to every slender muscle in her legs – her bestest friend in the whole world was looking at her like she had done something extremely scandalous. Shrugging off the guilt that she_ did_ do something untoward, Kyoko launched herself forward in a bright, shining mass of sparkles and flowers.

Expertly, Kotonami, Kanae dodged the love bullet as if she had done it her whole life – and, honestly, even when they were 80, she would do it for the pure sake of it – and leaned to the right. Undeterred, Kyoko stumbled into the doorway but never fell on her face because she hit a small, warm body that stopped her descent.

There was a hesitant chuckle and then her second bestest friend patted her, awkwardly, on top of her dark head. "Hello, Kyoko."

"Chiorin!"

Amimiya, Chiori winced at the brightness of the beaming smile directed at her and offered a weaker one in return, releasing her grip so Kyoko could step back into the room. She sent Kanae a quick glare and the actress only smirked knowingly, shrugging nonchalantly about sending the overly excitable Kyoko into her – how did that even happen, again!? – other close friend, though no one could honestly replace Kyoko in either of their eyes.

Chiori took one step into the room next to Kanae, cocking her head and furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. "Um, Kyoko, what are you doing in here?"

"She was talking to herself again."

Chiori's lips twitched. "Really, Kyoko, we thought you might have outgrown that."

Kanae snorted and raised one eyebrow elegantly, hand still perched on her hip but her eyes spoke volumes: she wanted_ answers_. And, curiosity bubbling in her belly, so did Chiori. After all, this room hadn't been used in years and there wasn't any reason for any of them to be in here any more. Especially Kyoko, yet, there she was, looking sheepish and eyes glossy with a sorrow that wrapped around her and Kanae, drawing them in.

Her gaze darted to the floor and she bit her lip, unsure what to say now that she had been caught doing something she shouldn't.

But she didn't need to say anything.

There was a reason Chiori and Kanae were her best friends – they understood her best.

Sharing a quick glance out the corner of their eyes, they glanced at Kyoko, and then, simultaneously, glanced to the left, towards the lockers. One hung open and both women felt their hearts melt into a warm, sticky, tangled mess.

Ah.

Kanae and Chiori stepped forward in unison, their focus on the bowed woman that had brought them –_ all_ of them, all of LME – together. Linking arms with the downtrodden Kyoko, the two women turned until all three faced the open lockers where one hung carelessly open. Chiori laid her head gently against Kyoko's shaking arm, her own eyes welling with warm tears. More composed, Kanae had a gentle hand on her best friend's other arm, staring at the culprit of her sadness, narrowing her eyes and daring for Kyoko to be hurt.

But the damage was done and the woman they held onto silently wept.

She recovered quick and by the time her trembling had faded, no woman had a dry eye, all three hanging onto each other and taking comfort in the friendship they had built.

It was a hoarse whisper but both women fought back the tides of their own hearts. "This is the end and I just….I wanted to say thank you. And….Goodbye."

"Kyoko, you shouldn't –"

Before Chiori could finish her quiet, unsure sentence, Kyoko finally lifted her bent head and both women couldn't have spoken if they had wanted to, overcome by the intensity of Kyoko's expression. It was clear she had bawled and wept like a baby but it was the shiny glow in her golden orbs and the bittersweet, secretive grin that caused answering smiles across their own lips.

Chiori closed her eyes for a second, gathering the emotions her memories crashed back into her as she uttered quietly, "I'm grateful, too."

Sighing loudly, Kanae tilted her head up to the bright lights above them but both of her friends only shared grins when they noticed her own curved lips. "Yeah yeah, me too, me too. There. Happy now?"

Kyoko bobbed happily and Chiori grinned, flashing her a thumbs up that sent Kyoko into a fit of giggles. Taking a deep breath, she looked over at Kyoko's wide grin and her red-rimmed golden eyes before tugging her gently.

When those striking orbs glanced at her, she nodded towards the open door. "He's waiting. You had him worried."

Kanae groaned and left Kyoko's side to march towards the door, glancing back with a swish of her long, dark hair and cold stare. "Come on, you, let's go before you give him a heart attack."

Snorting, Kyoko took a step, following behind the playfully bantering Chiori and Moko-san but her steps faltered. Hearing the pause, Chiori glanced back, seeing Kyoko's gaze still on the quiet lockers. When she msiled, it was understanding.

When their gazes met, Chiori nodded, sympathetic grief reflected in her eyes. "We can spare a minute. Catch up soon or Kana-chan might kill Kuon for being annoyingly overprotective."

Smiling softly in gratitude, Kyoko nodded, waiting until her friend turned and darted away to catch up with the gracefully quick Moko-san. Taking a deep breath, she turned and stepped towards the lockers, her heart pounding painfully. She lifted her hand to caress, for the last time, the soft, worn battle armor that had protected her fragile heart.

With tears in her bright, gold eyes, Mogami, Kyoko fingered the silky, neon pink jumpsuit one last time. Closing her eyes against the warm swell, she bit her lip and, hesitantly, lifted the hanger on the open locker door that carried the bright, glaring LoveMe overalls that had been their armor, their protection, and the very heart of the women who now stood at the top, and settled it inside the small, dark locker to finally put it away, for good.

Her stomach jumped and this time, when she opened her gold eyes, they were clear. Shiny and wet but there were no more tears and, just wanting to be able to remember, she reached out one last time and shook the sleeve of that worn suit like she was saying goodbye to an old friend.

"Goodbye, my armor."

As soon as the locker screeched shut, it was over.

Her belly flopped again, as turbulent as her heart, and she glanced down, smile soft as she placed her hands over her rounded, firm belly, her blouse showing off her curves and the large stomach she sported. At her touch, the wild flopping settled and she gently tapped her right ring finger where a beautiful purple-blue stone sat surrounded by little pink tear-shaped gems. "I know, I know. You want to see your father."

She rolled her eyes but her smile only widened. "I had to do this. It was time."

The child in her womb calmed instantly and Kyoko released a long, deep breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. Facing that closed locker, she smiled and touched her fingertips to the cold metal. "One day, you might be needed again, to help heal broken hearts. So goodbye for now, LoveMe."

She turned, grinning, and skipped merrily out of the room towards her future, to her Fairy Prince, and the happily ever after she deserved.

And it was all thanks to a neon pink jumpsuit.


End file.
